"The 4-Hour Workweek" Book Review

I just finished the The 4-Hour Workweek, which is saying a lot because In my reading list is not all that impressive. In the last few years, I finished a total of like 3 books. The The Da Vinci Code, Choke, and I attempted to read Atlas Shrugged (and only got about 200 pages in).

In the Beginning (of the book)

The book really dragged for me in the beginning as Timothy tried to brag, but not brag about everything he has done. He lists how he has won a kickboxing championship, a world record holder in tengo, went to Princeton (but didn’t finish until he came back after a break) and owns his company BrainQUICKEN. This was annoying, but it soon passed, and some decent knowledge began to trickle through.

The “New Rich” (NR)

The “New Rich” are the type of people who have setup business that can run without oversight, or the owner’s time. They are people who live with a series of “mini-retirements” rather than vacations, and cut out the extra fat from their life. This being things they don’t need whether it be a job, or possessions, or anything.

Becoming part of the “New Rich” – Cutting out Time Wasters

One of the biggest thing Timothy Ferris suggests is to cut out all time wasters. This being emails. He suggests that you only check email at certain times and make sure this is known by everyone. If someone constantly tries to start conversations without a purpose, tell them you have something you’re in the middle of and ask them to send you an email. He loves email because it either makes the person define a problem instead of running in circles, or has them go ahead and figure it out on their own.

Outsourcing your Life

It almost gets to the point of hilarity, but he suggests that you should outsource work that is purely time consuming and not something you need to do. He suggests getting someone in India, or elsewhere to do it, based on the costs. For about $X a week, you can have someone working full-time for you who could do research on a certain topic, do scheduling, whatever. My two favorites were when he used one of his outsourced employees to write part of a chapter in the book, and when he cited someone using a outsourced employee to send their wife flowers, and apologize for him.

What’s the goal?

He sums up the goal is to free yourself of the burdens of what people “assume” they must do, and then enjoy life. He defines enjoying life as “loving, being loved and always learning” which I would pretty much agree with.

A-

Final Thoughts and Grade

I thought this book had a lot of really good quotes and ideas, and would highly recommend it. On a grading scale I gave it an A- because it contains a lot of really cool ideas that I liked, but I did not like his tone in the beginning of the book. There is a lot more in the book that I found important, but I did not mark those sections as I read. Being the first book review I have done, I will attempt to “doggy-ear” pages when I read next time so I will have exact quotes.

If you have an office job, and feel like it could be better, I would definitely go grab it down at your local library or on Amazon.